Tend To Your Own Vineyards In The New Decade

From the Song of Solomon, in the NIV version of the Bible, Chapter 1 verse 6 reads as follows:

6 Do not stare at me because I am dark,
because I am darkened by the sun.
My mother's sons were angry with me
and made me take care of the vineyards;
my own vineyard I have neglected.

An interesting passage in that she had her own vineyard and yet was cajoled by her brothers to tend to their vineyards in a way that gave her too much exposure to the sun.

Perhaps she was an industrious person, who acted in part out of a sense of obligation but it turned out in a small way to be to her detriment with the overexposure to the sun and also with the possible neglect of her ownvineyard.

This can also be indicative of outer pressures of society, in this case brought about by her brothers who had her tending to their vineyards.

But there is a lot to think about with the idea of your deferment on your own things, to tend to the vineyards of others and how that might have an affect of overexposure to things that are first the concerns of others at the possible expense of your own thing.

In subtle ways, this happens all the time in today's society. With the emphasis maybe on working for the employee, often the company, the idea it to impress the employer or the potential employee but sometimes the means is to some unknown end that will fill in later. And then in the wholehearted ethos of hard work, what might get lost is your own thing, whatever that might be, but there is a degree occurrences of lost identity.

The woman had her become somewhat unrecognizable for overdoing it with the sun exposure by helping out in her brothers vineyards. Had she just tended to her ownvineyard, rather than vineyards in the plural, she would have had less time in the sun and maybe just a tan that would be moderate.

She was losing some of her known identity in working for the pursuits of others, and at the same time not even giving attention at these points to her own pursuits.

While it may certainty be hard to counteract this, to go against the grain a bit and to tend to your own things more, there should at least be awareness that this is what is actually happening, that parts of your identity are getting lost in the current equation of things.

There is only so much attention to give out and attention has to be divided in some way. And there is the importance of helping others. But you could argue in this case, why didn't the brothers just attend to their own vineyards themselves' They had to have known that their sister had her own thing to take care of.

To contend with this issue, the first thing that needs to be done is just having an awareness of the split or that a split is forming, that there is a separation from this considered your own or what you are doing is involved in a certain neglect of your own.

The ways that this could take form are infinite, but there can be some starting points, such as your own ideas, your own gifts, your own personal presence can begin to be compromised by the possibly errant call to tend to others vineyards.

And this may be partly the fault of everybody, of society at large that encourages strict protocol and linear thinking, where the more creative pursuits of the thought process and imaging's are tossed aside for the majority view.

Her brothers outnumbered her and by their sheer number, they may have exerted pressure upon her to neglect her own and just tend to their vineyards. She could take the leadership role on her own vineyard, but seems to have deferred too much to her brothers.

There is the idea of impressing others but there is something to be said for impressing yourself with your own thing.

For the new decade, especially with some of the ongoing and still forming economic chaos out there, take another view of what traits, qualities and gifts that you still have that you can call your own and gift more credence to how you can exercise upon these gifts and bring forth new fruit or new vines.

Symbolically, this woman was incredibly gifted, yet these verses show that the tending of her own was in these moments brushed aside and she went along with the pressures to tend to others pursuits, while never getting to her own.

And while this gifts included things on the physical plane, they also include gifts on the spiritual plane or vineyards as well.

Everybody has manifold gifts, but a key for the new decade is to watch out for forming splits where you are never getting back to also tend to your ownvineyard, symbolically your own gifts that can bring forth good growth.

For the new decade, a new vision can involve at least shifting some of your attention away from the pursuits of all else and to your own vineyards of maybe previously unseen and untended talents, that can bring forth new growth for both yourself and others raising to new heights ad new hopes.